RtÉ W/s

DaveH

Hi,
was it my emaignation or did RTE show friends in Widescreen tonight? Im sorry if this has already being covered, but I dont get to see TV before 9 most nights. I noticed that the RTE N2 dog was in a widescreen position, and the picture appeared widescreen. I was watching on a WS Tv via Sky.
Can anyone confirm or deny???

Thanks
Dave

Mossy Monk

really? hopefully this is testing or something

jmcbride

Chances are it was your imagination - as far as I know, the convention in the US is that drama is filmed in 16:9, but for some reason, comedy is still made in 4:3. If you watch Scrubs on Sky One, I'm almost certain you'll see that it's broadcast in 4:3, not widescreen.

celticfc

Would be nice if they were testing w/s broadcasts, but I severely doubt it. This is RTÉ we're talkin' about afterall. :rolleyes:

Charles Slane

My Philips Widescreen automatically switches to 14:9 for some shows on RTE (ER is one of them). This only happens on the analogue cable feed on NTL. I don't get a regular aerial feed so I don't know if it would happen direct from a transmitter, but I'd imagine so.

I presume they're sending some kind of switching signal.

So the question is, why don't they send this same signal on the Sky digital service ?

As for Friends being in widescreen the other night, I agree with jmcbride - for some reason sitcoms seem to be still all in 4:3. Maybe that'll change next season. Let's hope so.

Mossy Monk

Originally posted by Charles Slane
My Philips Widescreen automatically switches to 14:9 for some shows on RTE (ER is one of them). This only happens on the analogue cable feed on NTL. I don't get a regular aerial feed so I don't know if it would happen direct from a transmitter, but I'd imagine so.

this does happen with an aerial also

Charles Slane

I seem to recall that the reason given for there not being an RTE widescreen service on Sky was that it had to carry an identical service to terrestrial. So how come the Sky service doesn't carry the 14:9 switching ?

Hmm.. this is begining to wander into the "Satellite" area.... although I suppose it could be both.

Agreed.
For the subject of widescreen it would probably get more feedback here-thread moved to satelite

watty

14:9 is usually letterboxed framed inb a non-anamorphic 4:3 frame

16:9 can be anamorphic or letterboxed into a 4:3 non-anamorphic frame

Some PC viewers and WS TVs will detect the blank lines of letterboxing in a 4:3 mode non-anamorphic transmission and zoom.


My 4:3 TV does true anamorphic by reducing scan height. so it ignores all forms of letterboxing. It only switches on a true anamorphic signal (usually SCART switching, but some sources do Line23). RTE /TG4 / TV3 has not to my knowedge transmitted any ANAMORPHIC WS. They do however often do non-anamorphic 14:9 and sometimes non-anamorphic 16:9.

corm500

When network2 showed the first episode of the new series of The Sopranos my Sony widescreen switched to widescreen format. I even checked the Smart format ,which I normally would use for rte output and sure enough there were Tony and co. all in elongated form (ie. looking a bit strange). A sure sign that it was being transmitted in widescreen.I was just about to congratulate rte for coming into the 21st century when after about 2 minutes somebody in rte noticed and switched it back to normal. at least it shows that they have the technology to show programmes in this format.

Corm500

watty

of course they have the technology.. it is simply turning on or off a flag..

WS anamorphic can even be transmitted on Analog TV, the Line23 analog spec covers this. It would work fine, except everyone with 4:3 only mode TVs would have vertically elongated people. One late night film a week on Analog with publicity would not annoy 4:3 users and promote WS TVs. (it would of course also be anamorphic on Digital too)

Its so easy..

The transmission path doesn't care or notice Anamorphic vs regular 4:3. It is purely a viewing attribute as to how to display the image.

Film actually does it both ways, it can be simply letterboxed on the film frame and masked on projection (Like WS on a letterbox 4:3 frame) or anamorphic lens used on camera which sqeezes more width of image into a regular film frame. Without a similar lens on projection, the folk look too tall.

Different aspect ratios on film are created on Panavision, 35mm 70mm or super 35 simply by adding "letterbox masks" also, which is why films on 16:9 anamorphic WS DVD or Sky will almost always stil have black bars.

DVD/Satellite TV 16:9 = 1.78:1

Film WS anything from 1.66:1 to 2.7:1

Regular WS film is 1.85:1 and the very narrow black band hidden on a WS TV by the overscan!
No films are actually 16:9 = 1.78:1 WS!

Gavin W

Originally posted by Charles Slane
I seem to recall that the reason given for there not being an RTE widescreen service on Sky was that it had to carry an identical service to terrestrial. So how come the Sky service doesn't carry the 14:9 switching ?

Sky Digital does carry the 14:9 switching for RTE programmes, at least it works fine for me anyway. It even works when I'm watching on a second widescreen set upstairs (via the cable output on RF2) Perhaps it's something to do with your make of TV?

Charles Slane

That's interesting.

So it must be something coming from your digibox that does the switching that somehow doesn't make it from my digibox to my TV (or my TV doesn't "see" the switch).

It's a Philips and it seems to handle most things well. I wonder if it's a scart issue.

By the way I was watching Third Watch (am I the only person who loves that show ?) and the format is neither 14:9 nor 16:9. I'm sure someone (like our good friend Watty) could explain what this is (but in really really simple terms Lurking, for us eejits).

Mossy Monk

i have seen the 14:9 switching work on RTE through Sky aswell. i saw it with a philips tv and both a Grundig digibox and a Sky+ box but it doesnt work for all programmes for some reason

PK - the king

Originally posted by Charles Slane
That's interesting.

So it must be something coming from your digibox that does the switching that somehow doesn't make it from my digibox to my TV (or my TV doesn't "see" the switch).

It's a Philips and it seems to handle most things well. I wonder if it's a scart issue.


Philips Televisions have some hardware problem that does not always make widescreen switching work properly.


Corm500 RTE Will NEVER EVER be in the 21st century until they scrap gerry ryan, pat kenny, marian finnucane, joe duffy, derek mooney etc.

Pat Gleeson

RTE were at it again last night.
On RTE 1 at 11 o'clock last night, the programme that was on was 16:9 anamorphic squeezed into 4:3, so everyone looked as they were literally put through the wringer !

Somebody spotted this and after the adverts the picture reverted to letterboxed 14:9 format.
I can't give more details than this as it was a TV in the common room at work, and I'm not supposed to look at TV whilst on duty. I only stayed on to see if my eyes were decieving me..honest boss !!